Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-01-12
The Flying Years.
"HOW OLD ART THOU"

"HOW OLDART THOU"
FRIDAY NIGHT (DEC. 31ST.) THI
GATES OF ETERNITY OPENED,
And Let in the Soul of the Dying Year.
UNDER THE TWELFTH STROKE OF TIL
CLOCK THE PATRIARCH FELL DEAD AM
THE STARS WE'RE THE FUNERAL TORCHES
DIR. TALMAGE's SERMON SUNDAY
JAN. 2ND.
BROOKLYN, January 2.-This morning Al
the Tabernacle the Rev. #. Dewitt Tai
mage, D. D.. expounded some passages o.
Scripture concerning the longevity of the
patriarchs. He gave out the hymn begin
/ ing =
"My days are gliding swiftly by,
And +. a pilgrim stranger.
| Would not detain them they fly,
| Those hours of toll and danger"
His text was Genesis, cb. Al, v. 8: GLOW
old art thou ?" The preacher said
The Egyptian capital was the focus OF
the worlds wealth. In ships and barges
there had been brought to it from India
frankincense and cinnamon, and ivory and
diamonds from the North, marble and
iron from Syria, purple and silk from
| Greece, some of the finest horses of the
world, and some of the most brilliant char
lots and from all the earth that which
could best please the eye, and charm the
ear, and crafty the taste. There were
| temples atiame with red sandstone, entered
| by the gateways that were guarded by pill
lars bewildering with hieroglyphics and
wound with brazen serpents, and adorned
with winged creatures-their eyes, and
beaks, and pinions giittering with precious
stones. There were marble columns bloom
ing into white fower-beds there were
stone pillars, at the top bursting into the
shape of the lotus when in full bloom
Along the avenues, lined with Sphinx, and
fame and obelisk, there were princes who
came in gorgeousiy upholstered palanquin,
carried by servants in scarlet, or elsewhere
drawn by vehicles, the snow-white horses,
goIden-bitted and six abreast, dashing at
| full run. There were fountains from stone
wreathed vases climbing the ladders of the
light. You would hear bolt shove, and a
4
sum-. The surrounding gardens were satu-
rated with odors that mounted the terrace
and dripped from the arbors, and burned
| their incense ia the Egyptian noon. On
| floors OF mosaic the glories of Pharaoh were
spelled ont in letters of porphyry, and
beryl, and flame. There were ornaments
| twisted from the wood of tamarisk, en-
bossed with silver breaking into FOAM
There were fOOtstools made out of single
precious stone. There were beds fashioned
out of a crouched lion in bronze. There
were chairs spotted with the sleek hides of
leopards. There were sofas footed with
the claws of wild beasts and armed with
the beaks of birds. As yon stand on the
level beach of the sea on summer day
and look either way, and there are miles of
breakers, white with the ocean foam, dash
ing shoreward-so it seemed as if the sea of
the worlds pomp and wealth in the Egyp-
tian capital for miles and miles flung itself
up into white breakers of marble temple,
mausoleum and obelisk.
1t was to this capital and the palace of
Pharaoh that Jacob, the plain shepherd,
came to meet his son Joseph, who had be-
come Prime Minister in the royal apart
ment. Pharaoh and jacob meet, dignity
and rustlcity, the gracefulness of the court
and the plain manners of the field. The
king wanting to make the old countryman
at ease, and seeing how white his beard is
and how feeble his step, looks familiarly
into his face, and says to the aged man
Show old art thou?''
Night before last the gate of Eternity
opened to let in, amid the, great throng of
departed centuries, the soul of the dying
year. Under the twelfth stroke of the
brazen hammer of the city clock the patri-
arch fell dead, and the stars of the night
were the funeral torches. 1t is most fortu-
nate that on this road of life there are SO
many milestones, on which we can read
just how fast we are going towards the
journeys end. feel that it is not an inap-
propriate question that l ask, to-day, when
l look into your faces, and say, as Pharaoh
did to Jacob, the patriarch GLOW old art
thou ?''
People who are truthful ON every other
subject lie about their ages, SO that I do
not solicit from you any literal response to
the question have asked. would put no
one under temptation but I simply want,
this morning. to see by what rod it is we
are measuring our earthly existence There
is right way and q wrong way of mea sur
ing door, or wall, or an arch, or tower,
and so there is a right way and wrong
way of measuring our earthly existenc e.
1t is with reference to this higher meal ling
that confront you, this morning, with the
stupendous question of the text, and a, TX /:
"How old art thou ?'
There are many who estimate their life
by mere worldly qualification. When Le rd
Dundas was wished happy New Year, l1e
said cit will have to be happier yes II
than the past, for l hadn't one happy mo
ment in ali the twelve months that have
gone" But that has not been the expert :
ence of most of US. We have found that
though the world is blasted with sin, it is q
very bright and beautiful place to live in.-
We have had joys innumerable. There is
no hostility between the Gospel and the
merriments and the festivities of life. I do
not think that we fully enough appre te
the worldly pleasures GOD gives us. When
you recount your enjoyments you do not
go far enough back. Why do you not 90
back to the time when you were an infant
IN your mothers arms, le oking up into the
heaven OF her smile to those days when
you filled the house with the uproar of bois-
ferrous merriment when you shouted as
you pitched the ball on the playground
when, on the cold, sharp, winter night,
mufhed up, ON skates you shot out over the
reseunding ice of the pond? Have you
forgotten all those good days that the Lord
gave you? Were you never a bey? Were
you never a girl? Between these times
and this, how many mercies, how many
kindnesses the Lord has bestowed upon
you. How many joys have breathed upon
you from the flowers, and shone down to
you from the stars, and chanted to YOU
with the Voices of soaring bird, and tumb-
ling cascade, and booming sea, and thun-
ders that with bayonets of fife charged down
the mountain side Joy Joy Joy If
there is anyone who has a right to the en-
Joyments OF the world, it is the Christian,
!of 1eo mas given him lease to everything
have to tell yoI that man who estir mates
his life on earth by mere worldly ratif-
cation Is a most uawise man. Our life is
not to be game of chess. 1t is not
dance In lighted hall 20 quick music, 1t is
not the froth of an ale pitcher 1t is not
the settings of wine cup. It is not a
banquet with intoxication and 70 ystering.
1t is the first step on ladder tha { mounts